New! Pop up gallery at Eat Well Kitchen in Marblehead featuring imagery from Marblehead and Vermont.

Arctic Moon


I woke up to -24F in Vermont over the weekend and had thoughts of racing off to Lake Champlain in the morning to capture what would be one of the most prolific sea smoke events in recent history. It was not in the cards, but did get to witness a “cold moon event”. With winds whipping off of Lincoln Peak, a 99.4% waxing gibbous moon was setting just to its north. But before doing so, it illuminated the blowing snow on the mountain tops in dramatic fashion. I tried shooting from indoors due to the extreme cold but wasn’t happy with the small amount of glare appearing in the frame, even with a telephoto lens. So I set up a tripod outside, winds howling and -24F doing its worst. Assuming 20mph winds on average, the projected wind chill was -55F. After about 2 minutes, hands started throbbing and it became intolerable, so I had to head in- I’m guessing frostbite was not far from setting in. I thought this photo captured the intensity of the arctic event and one can only imagine what was happening at those higher elevations. 

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